My trusty old Sony Optiarc AD-7241 has been showing symptoms of aging, so Iâ€™m now looking for a replacement. I know that NEC-based Pioneers were among the best DVD-burners ever made, and also excellent for burning â€œpicky player compatibleâ€ audio-CDs. I was just wondering, how do currently available Pioneer DVD- and Blu-ray-models (DVR-220 and BDR-208) compare to those legendary â€œtrueâ€ Pioneers in terms of DVD and especially CD writing quality? Or how they compare to each other?

Ever since Pioneer went with QSI design (since 118/218), using MediaTek chipsets, their drives have been just “ok.” You may be better off in getting the BDR-208 since the chipsets in their Blu-ray drives have been consistent in using Renesas.

You also try to find the Optiarc 7200S/7201S/7203S drive for DVD and CD burning since they’re pretty good.

Thank you for your reply. I guess finding used Optiarc 720xS would not be a problem, and Iâ€™ve seen posts in this forum that say itâ€™s actually better burner than newer 7241S (which I currently have), so it would probably be a safe choice. I donâ€™t know its CD/DVD write quality and media compatibility compares to Pioneer and other new blu-ray drives, but at least it would be a lot cheaper.